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Sessions: Kagan unprincipled on gay rights

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee charged Wednesday that Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's defense of gay rights while dean of Harvard Law School was driven more by politics than by principle.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) argued that Kagan's efforts to limit recruiting by the military, which bans open homosexuals in its ranks, stood in contrast to her lack of protest over Harvard's acceptance of $20 million from a Saudi prince to endow several professorships, though that country and Islamic law impose often-draconian penalties on gays and lesbians.

"Around the same time Ms. Kagan was campaigning to exclude military recruiters — citing what she saw as the evils of 'don’t ask, don’t tell' — Harvard University accepted $20 million from a member of the Saudi royal family to establish a center for Islamic studies in his honor," Sessions said during a Senate floor speech Wednesday afternoon.

"Ms. Kagan was perfectly willing to obstruct the U.S. military — which has liberated countless Muslims from the hate and tyranny of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban. But it seems she sat on the sidelines as Harvard created an Islamic Studies Center funded by — and dedicated to — foreign leaders presiding over a legal system that violates what would appear to be her position. She fought the ability of our own soldiers to access campus resources but not those who spread the oppressive tenets of Islamic sharia law."

Sessions also pointed out, as he has before, that during her four years of service in the Clinton White House Kagan is not known to have protested the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that President Bill Clinton helped craft and sign into law in 1993. This despite the fact that she later called the policy "a moral injustice of the first order."

A White House spokesman dismissed Sessions's claim that Kagan had "exploited" military personnel for political reasons.

"Once again, Senate Republicans are demonstrating that they won’t let the facts get in the way of a political attack, one that West Point Dean Patrick Finnegan called ‘ludicrous,'" spokesman Josh Earnest said. "The truth is that, under Dean Kagan, the number of Harvard law school graduates who entered military service increased. Some of those students are now serving overseas and have expressed their belief that General Kagan should be confirmed to the Supreme Court.”

Earlier Wednesday, three Democratic senators took to the floor to praise Kagan.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) encouraged her colleagues to "keep an open mind" about Kagan's nomination. Klobuchar was followed, perhaps a tad jarringly, by Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) declaring that Kagan was highly qualified and should be confirmed.